Another pitcher's problems blamed on "World Baseball Classic"

From The Daily Southtown, 3/10/06 regarding Astro Brad Lidge,

"He thought playing in last year's World Baseball Classic disrupted him, and that he rushed his delivery last year and wound up too much on the first-base side of the mound. He blew two saves in April after blowing only four in the previous 1½ seasons.

"He got to the end of spring training (in 2006) and his arm wasn't producing like it normally produced, velocity-wise," said Houston general manager Tim Purpura. "That may have been the first time Brad experienced not having all his stuff that he usually has, and that got him into some bad habits."

• Once the regular season started, Lidge said his new mechanical flaw was so ingrained, he couldn't reverse it."

From Baseball Notebook, Daily Southtown, AP Story, 3/10/07

• P.S. You probably won't see this item on MLB.com, or hear Gene Orza talk about it too much. For that matter, no one will talk about it too much. You might ask why. (sm)

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